I received some very exciting news this week when Meru, kati roll master and owner of Biryani Cart told me he would be opening his first restaurant this week. My excitement waned only slightly when he told me it would be in Jamaica, Queens. Field trip, anyone?

The restaurant is called Voot-er Adda NY and if all goes according to plan, it will open on Thursday. The menu is a very interesting fusion of Bangladeshi and Chinese cuisine. Meru gave me a copy of the menu and it looks like a perfect Midtown Lunch spot (except for the whole geographical issue) with most dishes well under $10. Some of the wings he was serving at Juicy Wings are featured as appetizers, along with some deliciously described entrees like sizzling chicken katsu, Manchurian fried rice, and Thai style masala beef. The famous kati rolls are offered, along with (surprise, surprise) a $6.95 lunch special.

For now, Meru will still be manning the 46th Street cart during the day and will be at the restaurant in the evening. When I asked the busy chef if he plans on bringing any of these new dishes to Midtown, I got a good-for-now “maybe.”

Last week the Biryani Cart (on 46th and 6th) added a new special to their menu in honor of our Birthday Party, featuring a kati roll, a bit of chicken biryani and a samosa all for $7. (I do love variety!) It was so popular that they’ve decided to add the combo to the permanent menu starting today. It sold out pretty quickly on Thursday of last week (once they run out of samosas it’s over), so if it looks good to you, you may want to hit it up early today just to be safe.

On Saturday we gathered together at City Winery with a couple hundred of our closest friends to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Midtown Lunch (yes, we too are surprised this thing has been around for 5 years!)   A great time was had by all thanks to the amazing food (provided graciously by Kwik Meal, The Biryani Cart, Cer Te, Ma Peche, Food Gallery 32, El Rey del Sabor, Tri Tip Grill, Wafels & Dinges, Miss Softee & the Rolling Cones, Kelvin Slush, and Momofuku Milk Bar) and the endless drinks courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery and GuS’s soda.

Check out the highlights, after the jump…

Bian Dang’s colorful truck was there, serving up their tasty, meaty Taiwanese style pork chops with pork gravy and pickled veggies over rice with a smile. It was contributor Donny T’s favorite of the day.

They were parked next to their Food Gallery 32 co-horts, Boon Sik Zip, who served up delicious made to order kimbap featuring your choice of beef, tuna and veggie flavors. So good!

Eddie’s Pizza showed off their brand new cart (the very first of its kind!), serving up a light and shatteringly crisp tomato and basil bar pie.

Má Pêche Chef, Tien Ho, and his crew brought their A-game, serving a special banh mi that was conceptualized just for this event. This sandwich featured a ridiculously juicy and rich slab of pork belly, paired with crunchy pickled daikon beef,
crab mayo and green papaya, in a good crusty roll. Mamacita was a fan, saying “their pork reminded me the strong richness and fattiness that I would expect from an old school carnitas store in East LA. A heavy squirt of shiracha sauce just put a happy ending to the whole mouthful. I should mention the serving size demanded a two hander, my boyfriend had to hold my beer while I took this thing down.”  And Chris H appreciated how juicy and messy it was. ”I want stuff falling out of it and juice to be running down my wrists when I take a bite – this sandwich did just that, and it was awesome!”

Based on hear-say from the crowd, the Tri-Tip Grill crew earned themselves some new customers, as people buzzed about the lusciously meaty Baby Buck sliders.  Thinly sliced, super tender roast beef dipped in debris and topped with bbq sauce and horseradish… it was perfection on a potato roll.

Our friends over at Cer Te, not to be bested by Má Pêche, also came up with a new menu item for this event. Their contribution was a hearty house made lobster sausage in a snappy natural casing. They paired this ‘haute dog’, with a truffled fingerling potato salad, sprinkled with lobster infused salt. This dish ended up as contributor Brian Hoffman’s favorite dish, as he raved,

“It was so unusual and the flavors worked really well together. The truffle creamed potatoes on the side and a garnish of an inventive and out of control lobster salty put the dish over the edge for me. I don’t see this on their regular menu, but if they ever do add it, I know where I’ll be spending the majority of my summer lunches.”

El Rey Del Sabor showed up with their signature tacos, which were available with pork, beef, or chicken. The folks that opted for spicy were treated to an exhilarating but tongue searing level of spice. Luckily there was plenty of suds by Brooklyn Brewery and GuS soda available to put out the fire.

Muhammed Rahman and the Kwik Meal Cart team stuck with the stuff that made them famous… handing out samples of their pita stuffed with their signature chunks of whole, juicy lamb. A Midtown Lunch classic!

Meru and the Biryani Cart offered samples of another iconic aMidtown lunch, chicken biryani and kati rolls.

The crummy weather didn’t stop people from gulping down cup after cup of refreshing ginger and Arnold Palmer slushes from Kelvin Natural Slush. (And we may or may not have spotted Zach behind the prize table adding something from a flask into his…)

For dessert, attendees were treated to the always scrumptious Wafels and Dinges liegewafels, which were topped with a swipe of nutty spekuloos and a swirl of whipped cream.

And Chrissie (aka Miss Softee), ringleader of The Rolling Cones, was there to hand out her innovative ice cream creations, including the infamous Potato Chip Choco Dip cone and the Watchamacallit cone.

But the “genius of the day” award goes to Blondie, who sandwiched Miss Softee’s soft serve between two cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar!

Although food was the focus of the event, it was also a chance for friends and family of Midtown Lunch to meet, eat, drink, and be happy. And there was probably no one happier in attendance, than little Harry the unofficial Midtown Lunch mascot, who was able to escape the stroller and stretch his legs.

In addition to all the great food and drinks, thanks to all the vendors who donated prizes! Including, Sweetery NYC, Bon Chon, Goodburger, Mooncake Foods, Beacon, BeerParc, Schnitzel & Things, Eddie’s Pizza Truck, Bistro Truck, Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, Yushi, The Counter, Glaze Teriyaki, Taim Mobile, Kimchi Taco Truck, Mai Cuisine, Macaron Cafe, ‘wichcraft, Hertz Connect, Seamless Web, Not For Tourist Guides, and Bouchon Bakery. You didn’t have to be present to win, so we’ll be sending out the rest of the prizes this week!

And finally a big thank you to everybody who came out to the party to support Midtown Lunch and the Street Vendor Project. You guys made this birthday one we’ll always remember!

The Biryani Cart empire appears to be expanding its borders beyond 46th and 6th. Their Juicy Wings cart, which hasn’t actually been serving wings since February, is now set up 2 blocks south on the SW corner of 44th & 6th serving traditional favorites like biryani, street meat and kati rolls right next to My Biryani, a cart heavily “inspired” by Biryani Cart.  The  move will surely result in some “friendly” competition, but when I stopped by the much less well-known My Biryani was actually serving more people in its usual spot than the recently relocated offshoot of the original. It will be interesting to see how lines compare as more people realize they can get Biryani Cart food two blocks away, presumably with less waiting.

“Thou Shall Not Eat Fish from a Cart” is one of those street eating commandments that I had unfailingly observed until a couple years ago. The praise that Kim’s Aunt Cart so regularly received from Zach and fellow midtown lunchers is what convinced me to put aside my squeamishness and give it a try. Kim’s made me a believer and while I’ll admit that I’m still a little sketched by cart fish, it’s something that I will go for on a case by case basis. Biryani Cart debuted some new menu items in November, but I’ve only recently had the chance to try their boneless fish curry.

For $7.00 you get a nice combination of rice, curried veggies, and dal with a fillet of fish on top and some salad. Forgive the photo, the lunch slid around in the container when I took it to go.

The fish is moist and tender and was very mild, not at all fishy tasting. The fillet of fish isn’t huge, but it’s a decent portion (bigger than the standard “deck of cards serving metric) and the lentils, rice and veggies round out the meal nicely and make this a more than filling lunch. For those who love fish, but hate little bones, this is a good bet.

Biryani Cart, SW Corner of 46th and 6th

When you’re the food blogger in the family you often get co-opted into the food decider role–the person in charge of picking the food outing that the whole family will enjoy. I love introducing people to new foods, but still it comes with a good bit of pressure. Months ago I introduced my husband’s aunt to kati rolls and she’s been raving about them ever since. With my husband’s mother, brother and sister in town it was clear that kati rolls would be on tap and with so many eager eaters it seemed an apt opportunity to embark on a kati krawl.

The rules of the krawl were this–carts and trucks only. Sorry Kati Roll Co, but this was an all mobile food adventure. Here’s where we hit and what we had:

We began our krawl at Sami’s Dosa Cart where I had noticed that they were selling vegetarian kati rolls. As I mentioned in my Sami’s review: “The kati rolls from the cart are vegetables only and pre-rolled and reheated (most places heat the paratha then add the filling). They seemed to be filled with carrot and onion, almost like an Indian spiced egg roll.” There weren’t many fans in the group for this kati roll, so I would suggest sticking with the delicious dosas here.

Next up we headed to the Desi Food truck on 50th between 6th and 7th. We tried to hit the 39th street Desi Food Truck but they weren’t out that day. Since I’ve never tried the kati rolls from the Desi Food Truck we ordered one of each. The Aloo Masala and Chicken Rolls were each $4.50 and the Paneer Masala and Chicken Anda Rolls were $5.50.

The Desi Food Truck had thicker paratha than I’m used to so it was a little more dense and chewy. The rolls themselves were larger than at Biryani Cart, but if you have a larger appetite I would venture that you’d probably want more than one for lunch. The chicken roll had a nice after kick of spice. The majority of the group preferred the chicken roll to the Chicken Anda roll- the consensus was that the “egg muted the flavor.” My family tends to be intensely pro-spice, so you can take that for what it’s worth.

The tender aloo filling was topped with cilantro sauce. We didn’t find this to be overwhelmingly hot, but it was very pleasant.

The Paneer roll drew mixed reviews from the group. I love a good paneer roll, so I was pretty excited. Unfortunately the cilantro sauce was unevenly distributed so some of the bites were on the bland side. If you like hot sauce I would recommend asking for extra here.

Next up was the Biryani Cart (on 46th and 6th) where the Kati Rolls are 2 for $6. I ordered a Pune Roll (chaat masala chicken), a King Koti Roll (Tikka Glazed Chicken), a Chennai Roll (Sweet Chili Chicken) and the Spicy Buradi (chicken with mint habanero sauce). At this time they had not debuted their Paneer Roll yet, so I wasn’t able to order it. We were already pretty loaded up on rolls so we didn’t order the two vegetarian rolls from the Biryani Cart.

All of the rolls from the Biryani Cart vanished quickly with the spicy/sweet/sour Chennai and the extra spicy Buradi rolls were the hands down favorite of the group. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law couldn’t stop raving about how good they were. Biryani Cart is my go to kati purveyor, so over time I’d lost an appreciation for how tender and lightly buttery their paratha are. Having a slew of different kati rolls in a row renewed my appreciation for their paratha.

The last addition to our krawl were the relatively new kati rolls from Kwik Meal (on 45th and 6th), $3.50 each or 2 for $6 that Chris first reviewed in January. The vegetable roll was stuffed with an assortment of veggies: broccoli, corn, onion, pepper, and if I’m not mistaken, water chestnut. The chicken was rich and flavorful and both rolls were dressed with Kwik Meal’s famous white and hot sauce. The paratha was thinner, less buttery and a bit crispier than at any of the other carts. It also was the messiest and readily fell apart.

To recap our highly unscientific taste taste/food crawl. Sami’s rolls get a skip, Desi Food Truck on 50th were okay but didn’t overwhelm the group, Kwik Meal’s rolls showed great promise and got the thumbs up from my brother-in-law’s girlfriend who favored their thinner wrapper, but overall, Biryani Cart by a large margin won the day with their Spicy Buradi and Chennai rolls.

My very first kati roll experience was at Kati Roll Co (the EV branch, sorry Midtown kids). My friend encouraged me to order their Achari Paneer roll, a spicy vegetarian roll filled with onions and paneer, a simple Indian cheese, topped with plenty of hot sauce. It was love at first bite. I’ve long hoped that Biryani Cart, my go to midtown kati roll spot, would add a paneer roll to the menu, so I was pretty excited to hear that last week they finally did.

In terms of construction Biryani Cart’s paneer slices are thinner than the ones at Kati Roll co, and they were each slightly grilled. The rolls were filled with some veggies (lettuce, a bit of carrots) and topped with white sauce. Between the cheese and the white sauce, it was a mild roll, but very pleasant- especially if you’re a cheese fan. Next time I’ll try it with hot sauce!

Biryani Cart, SW Corner of 46th and 6th